Amity Park After Dark
by Workparty
Summary: Amity Park: It's calm here! But when the sun goes down, and the nightlife begins? Danny Fenton and his friends tend to find themselves in way over their heads. (Back to regular-ish updates)
1. The Pilot

Previously, on _Disconnected_ :

 _After the lab accident, Danny Fenton began to hear a voice. After a few days of questioning his own sanity, much to the annoyance of the voice, it became clear that he had a ghost living in his head. As the newly dubbed "Phantom" showed him, this gave him access to a whole suite of ghostly powers and abilities. With the support of his two best friends Sam and Tucker, as well as his sister Jazz, Danny resolved to work with Phantom to protect Amity Park._

 _The pair spent the next few weeks fighting off ghosts, working as a team to control Danny's body, and stalked at seemingly every turn by clandestine government officials and their own parents. Eventually, Jack and Maddie Fenton discovered the secret, and confronted Danny; after some hasty explanations and medical tests, it was revealed Phantom was actually the right half of Danny's brain, which had become disconnected from the left half, and begun acting independently._

 _Unfortunately, the brain damage was extensive. To save Danny's life, it was necessary to perform a surgery, which Phantom had a 95% chance of not surviving; but in the end, the ghost insisted they go through with the operation, sacrificing himself to avoid Danny's untimely demise._

And now,

AMITY PARK AFTER DARK

"Pilot" rev. 2

 _Ch. #01_

* * *

TEASER

INT. FENTON HOUSE LIVING ROOM - - MORNING

Two weeks.

Danny had been up and on his feet for two weeks now.

He woke up every morning at 7:30 on the dot. He smacked down his alarm clock, went to take a shower, put on clothes, descended the stairs to the kitchen, poured himself a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice, and then ate while he talked with his sister or parents, depending on who was at the table. Fourteen times he had successfully completed the ritual; ten of those times, he grabbed his backpack and tried to leave the house, only for anywhere between one and three of his family members to suddenly get cold feet. Ten times, as his hand was about to land on the door knob, they would call him back with an "Ehm, Danny? Maybe you should stay home today, too."

Today was the day. He felt it, deep within himself. Danny adjusted the straps on his backpack, checked his shoelaces, and made sure he was carrying his wallet and keys. Steeling himself with a deep breath, he walked confidently forward, hand poised to grab the glimmering brass doorknob—

"Danny..."

 _Clonk_. He let his head fall limply forward into the door, with a sigh.

"Have you thought that maybe you should wait until Monday...?"

Deliberately relaxing his shoulders, Danny turned to face his mother, silhouetted in the archway to the merrily lit kitchen. At his expression of obvious displeasure, she walked over to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. It was as if she was worried he might break under too much pressure.

"I think we should do just a few more tests to make sure you're well enough. Another few days won't hurt." She smiled at him, worry visible in her eyes even blocked as they were by red welding goggles.

"Mom, no offense, but if I have to spend another four days cooped up in here I'm going to run away to the Ghost Zone."

Maddie smiled playfully back. "Really sweetie, the Ghost Zone can't sustain human life."

No asterisks were involved, and Danny knew it. He wouldn't last long in the Ghost Zone now. He may still trip up some of his parent's ghost-hunting equipment, but since losing his other half, he'd been as good as human since the day he'd woken up; probably, since the day of the surgery itself, although he didn't exactly remember the eight days of coma between the two.

"Fine, I'll run away to Canada then. Come on, mom, it's been over _three weeks!_ The tests are going to say that I'm a completely healthy fourteen-year-old, just like they did the last bazillion times." It was the same line he had tried yesterday. Today, maybe he'd try an appeal to her academic nature. "And if I miss any more school I'm going to be so screwed when we start midterms."

He could see the internal battle that little addition had caused. She stepped a bit closer and gave him an appraising look, grabbing him by the chin and turning his head from side-to-side like she was expecting to find an ear missing. Finally, with a frown, Maddie ran a hand over his shoulder to smooth out a wrinkle and relented. "Well, all right. Just... Take it easy today, OK sweetie?"

"Will do! Bye, mom!" Danny flung the door open and shot out of Fentonworks before his mom could change her mind; three blocks later, he met up with Tucker, who was optimistically waiting at their usual street corner, albeit while checking his watch.

"Hey, Tuck!" Danny shouted from across the crosswalk, grinning from ear to ear.

"Hey dude, welcome back to the land of the living." The technogeek greeted him with a tired wave, looking at him incredulously. "Wow, I never thought I'd see somebody so excited to go to school."

"It beats the heck out of another battery of ultrasounds and blood tests. Or helping dad pack for that 'expedition' thing." He elbowed his friend gently as they started walking.

"How much stuff is he even packing? Isn't he just going to the 'Zone for like a day?"

"I mean, yeah, and Chinook even said she'd swing by to navigate the Specter Speeder straight to the Far Frozen. But with the gear he's loaded up you'd think he was going to climb Everest."

"Um, which one was Chinook again?"

"Big yeti? White fur? Blue horns made of ice? Looks like she could crush your skull with her biceps? You know, Chinook."

"Danny, I'm pretty sure you just described like every ghost we've ever met from the Far Frozen."

"Wow, Tucker."

"What?! It's true!"

"Hey dorks!" The two turned to see Sam running up behind them. When she caught up, she threw her arms around their necks at full speed, pulling them both into a one-armed hug.

"Sam? What're you doing here?" Danny asked, curious. She didn't normally meet them until they were on the Casper High grounds, living on the other side of it from him and Tucker.

"I kinda figured you'd be held up at home again today, and I was going to bust you out. I brought a grappling hook and everything!"

It was Tucker's turn to be caught off guard. "...why do you own a grappling hook?"

"Parkour phase. It's a goth thing, you wouldn't understand." Turning back to Danny, she added with a grin, "So, your parents are finally willing to let you out of their sight for more than an hour? Welcome back to the land of the living!"

"Not exactly—"

"And I already used that line," Tucker added.

"—but I wore mom down by claiming that being away was going to drag down my grades."

"Still, it'll be nice to have you around again dude. With only me and Sam at the lunch table, the entire woodwind section of the marching band has enough room to join us. You'd think they'd distract the A-listers but it really only makes them throw even more trash at us."

"Salad isn't 'trash', Tucker, it's a sustainable source of _several_ essential nutrients, in addition to dietary fiber, and—"

Danny just rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm glad things are finally getting back to normal."

Casper High was just on the other side of the road; Danny had hardly stepped off the curb when suddenly Tucker grabbed him by the shirt-neck and yanked him back onto the rough sidewalk. A fraction of a second later, a brightly glowing Ectopus flew down the street, followed closely behind by several police cars with their sirens blaring. Tucker looked triumphant as the wailing faded away down the block. "Y'see Sam? Meat gives you superior reflexes."

With a sigh, Danny dusted himself off. "Or whatever passes for 'normal' now..."

* * *

Author's Note:

 _Hello!_

 _I am Workparty. Welcome to_ Amity Park After Dark, _the sequel to my last story,_ Disconnected.

 _After an absurdly long hiatus, I am coming back to writing; the chapter above is more or less the same one posted on 11 May 2017, but now with a summary of the road so far, and a few other slight tweaks. The next chapter should be up a bit later tonight (22 July CDT, or perhaps very early 23 July by the time it finally gets polished and uploaded...), and from there I intend to update with **some** level of frequency._

 _Wish me luck._


	2. The Pilot: Act One

ACT ONE

INT. CASPER HIGH LUNCH ROOM - - NOON

"I see the four-fold man, the humanity in deadly sleep, its fallen emanation, the specter and its cruel shadow. I see the... The..." Danny groaned, dropping the haughty, mocking voice he had affected. "Ugh, are we actually going to be tested on this garbage?" He carelessly tossed the poetry book to one side, where it landed in a pile of similarly discarded volumes. "I've only been back for one morning and I'm already wishing that... You know," he paused, " _he_ was still around to explain some of this stuff."

Tucker just shrugged. Through the half-chewed sloppy joe, Danny was pretty sure he heard his friend say, "Meh, English won't be that bad. At least we just have to know the poems, we don't have to understand them."

"That was surprisingly deep. Considering the mouth it came out of." Sam, who had been staring at him with mixed disgust and admiration, took a moment to shake herself out of it before turning to Danny. "But yeah, it could be worse. I hear Ventress' class has to write poems in the style of Lord Byron."

Danny's reply was cut off by Tucker's interjection. "Wait, wasn't that Ada Lovelace's dad?"

"...he did other stuff, too."

"Well, you coulda fooled me, Sam." He shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich before something over Danny's shoulder caught his eye. He pointed and said something completely incomprehensible; Danny rolled his eyes and turned to look for himself, to his horror finding a nervous redhead walking briskly straight for him.

"Hey Jazz, what's up? Library catch fire?" Danny grinned at his own joke.

She just gave him a quizzical look. "If it did, the fire alarm would have gone off."

"It was a... Yeah. Uh, didn't you have a thing about not talking to me in school or something?"

"This is more important than that. It's got to do with the-thing-we-know-about-that-they-don't-know," she explained, giving a meaningful glance at the other students sitting a bit further down the table.

"Don't worry Jazz," Sam cut in, "that's the band's woodwind section. They've been too busy sulking to notice the outside world."

To her surprise, a clarinetist spoke up at that. "Hey, come on, you try learning Edelweiss for three weeks before the drama department up and changes this year's musical! Let me know how you feel after _that_!"

Once she recovered from the shock, she smiled slightly. "Oh, so you _are_ eavesdropping. In that case, screw." Sam jerked her thumb over her shoulder, face falling into an ugly scowl; it was enough to send the band members running.

Jazz frowned slightly, but sat down all the same, before leaning forward conspiratorially. "Ok, well, I was in the library—"

"Shocker." That earned Danny a slap to the shoulder.

"Anyway, I overheard some maintenance people talking about installing a ghost alarm of some kind in the library. You know what I mean? A _ghost detector_."

She needlessly paused to let her meaning sink in. Danny quirked an eyebrow after a few seconds, and she continued.

"From what I can tell it's a pilot project. If it works, they're going to put up more around the whole school." In an even further hushed tone, she added, "and I thought maybe _somebody_ who keeps setting off the Fenton Finder might want to go see if he trips _this_ alarm before they're all over the building."

Danny was silent for a moment. He didn't want to be caught snooping around the library while the alarms were being installed, if only because of the niggling questions that might raise in the back of some peoples' minds. On the other hand, if these new alarms were built anything like Fentonworks tech, did he want to risk Danny-detecting-ghost-alarms being deployed across the whole school before he found a way around them?

He groaned. There was no clear best choice of action. Normally he would want a second opinion, but aside from his own murky thoughts, his mind was stubbornly silent.

But he could guess what his other half would have said.

"All right, I guess I've just gotta get it over with, huh? Let's go, I'm done with this garbage anyway." He set down his grass sandwich just in time to see Sam standing over him, fuming.

" _It's not garbage!_ It's a sustainable, nutritionally-complete meal!"

Danny slid the contents of his tray into the trash can, unimpressed. "Sam, it's garbage," he and Tucker said at once.

Making their way to the door, they heard Sam mutter " _Boys..._ " under her breath, though when prompted for a response Jazz only hummed noncommittally.

Tucker nudged Danny's side sympathetically. "Just be glad it's only for today. She was going to try to lobby the school board to make it an all-week thing instead of a one-off until we got caught up with your whole... Situation. Thing." he said in a whisper, and with a slight grin.

Danny smiled. Tucker could joke about it now. Sam had barely brought it up. Even his family was willing to stop hovering, or at least in Jazz's case keep the hovering to an acceptable minimum. As the strange quartet made their way to the library, he let himself think that maybe, just maybe, things could go back to normal.

* * *

Author's Note:

 _Hello, hello. Long time, no see._

 _Life did what it does best, but I now intend to get back into the swing of things. A very lightly edited first chapter has been posted. So light in fact that you most likely do not need to read it again if you read it once. Mostly, it was just to add a quick summary of the events of_ Disconnected _. Originally I had intended for this story to stand somewhat independently, but in the last two-and-a-half months I have realized that would most likely be impossible._

 _In any case, I hope you enjoyed the new installment, short though it was; I apologize for the length, but I did want to hit the Saturday (or at 00:45, "Saturday-ish") target, and the next scene needs some more work... Hmm. Perhaps I got rusty...? Anyway, that update is now tentatively rescheduled for tomorrow around 8 pm CDT. I hope to see you then._


	3. The Pilot: Act Two

ACT TWO

INT. CASPER HIGH HALLWAY — AFTERNOON

"What are you waiting for? Just go in, dude." Tucker gave his friend a light shove toward the library door but definitely made no motion to follow too closely behind him.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Danny said, "I'm just... Working up to it."

His resolve had dimmed when he got a good look inside the library from the doorway and noticed the place was packed; between dozens of students using the computers (some for research, although the teen was pretty sure in his brief glimpse that more than half were playing browser games), a throng of drama club members practicing lines, and two small collections of maintenance workers, the library was bustling with more activity than usual. It was loud, but an alarm ringing out would still be clearly audible.

Danny raised a hand to rub away a phantom pain in the back of his neck. "Maybe, Tucker, you could just find the website for," he had to squint to read the small black lettering on white coveralls, "'Chesapeake Alarm Services', and see if they put their blueprints on the internet? I mean, we don't have to actually go _near_ them, right?"

He turned around to face his entourage. None of them looked particularly impressed by that idea.

"OK, OK, I'll go." _"And step into social pariah-dom... Well, more so than before."_

With a deep breath, he stepped over the threshold and into the library.

The world didn't end.

The activity in the room didn't even pause at his entrance. The alarms remained silent, the patrons and staff remained oblivious to his presence. Danny stood there, one foot inside and one foot out, for just a moment to make sure reality wasn't just taking a moment to catch up with him; behind him, Sam finally sighed in exasperation.

"All right fraidy-cat, let's go." She hooked an arm under his shoulder and dragged him inwards. He stumbled a bit but got his footing in time to walk-jog away from her grasp and toward the tall bookcases jutting out from the walls.

Jazz and Tucker made much more graceful entrances and soon joined the others. "Way to enter inconspicuously, Danny!" Jazz whisper-shouted, "the technicians are installing an alarm on the other side of this bookcase, it's lucky they didn't hear you!"

The librarian at the reference desk turned from his reading and shushed Jazz, who blushed, before continuing at a lower volume. "All you have to do is walk around the corner, see if the alarm goes off, and then we'll be out of here. Just don't panic."

"And I'll Google these Chesapeake guys, see if they're on the 'net or not." added Tucker.

"It sounds easy when you say it like that..."

"Hey, it _will_ be easy! What could go wrong?"

Danny groaned. "Ugh, go and _jinx_ it, will you?" He ignored Sam's unhelpful chuckling and stepped out of the alcove. He rounded the bookcase as casually as he could, and into the next row.

A technician was on a tall step ladder, screwing some sort of mounting bracket into the ceiling, while another stood at ground level fiddling with what looked like a disassembled fire alarm. Danny worked his way closer, pretending to be interested in first metaphysics, then ontology, and cosmology, before he froze.

The man on the ground was about to insert a battery into the alarm.

As soon as the leads made contact, a red LED blinked on for the briefest moment before the alarm started blaring.

The technician holding it barely had time to drop it in panic before Danny was running. As the wailing continued, he passed his friends and sister, who were running frantically on their own.

Shouts rang out from across the library, and some of the staff yelled for calm while the contractors were yelling for an evacuation. At the head of the din, Team Phantom had left the library far behind, and didn't stop running until they were most of the way across the school.

"That... That was _way_ too close, little brother." Jazz had one hand over her chest as if to assure herself that her heart was still beating. Danny hadn't fared much better, and Tucker, predictably, was wheezing on the ground, dead to the world.

Sam spared a glance around the corner to check for pursuers; spotting none, she turned back to her friends with a smug grin. "I keep telling you guys, a little cardio goes a long way... But it looks like we're in the clear."

Jazz _hmm_ ed. "Well, if Tucker can find anything about the alarm company... Is there any way to... I don't know, hack the alarm?"

Tucker mumbled a response from the floor. Realizing he was the only person who even slightly heard it, Danny spoke up. "He says you can't 'just hack anything electrical'. But if I set it off, I'm going to need to do _something_ to shut it down... I guess the question is, how am I going to get at it?"

"You could always stop in after hours?" Jazz suggested.

"Hey, good idea sis!"

The two shared a grin before she replied. "I have my moments."

* * *

"But this is _not_ what I meant!"

"Well, I guess you have accidentally good ideas?" Danny spared his sister a glance before he stole across the street, out of the revealing orange cones cast by the street lamps, and onto the darkened school grounds; the silent footsteps were closely followed by the click-clack of flats slipping off of heels as Jazz ran to catch up.

"Danny, why didn't you just hang around after classes ended? It's almost 10, the school is probably _locked_."

He didn't break his pace toward the front doors as he answered. "If the building was still occupied, don't you think somebody would connect the dots and realize the alarm went off both times _I_ was around?

"OK, fine, but the door is probably still—" Jazz paused as Danny reached the door and jiggled the handle, finding it immobile, "Locked. See? We can't get in."

"Good thing Sam's here, then."

"That's the other thing!" Jazz cried, "why did you involve Sam in this crazy plan?"

"Tucker didn't want to come here alone," said Sam, who walked up to pass Danny a hair pin before leaning casually against the brick wall as he stooped down to tinker with the lock.

"And why'd you two bring Tucker?!"

"I'm here to shut down the normal, people-alarm system," replied the techno-geek, without looking up from his PDA. His stylus flew over the touchscreen before, with a triumphant flourish, he finished his hack with a smile. "You should be OK to open the door now Danny, the security system is disarmed."

"Thanks, Tuck." After a click, Danny withdrew the makeshift lockpick and the door swung forward freely. "You see Jazz? We've got this all under control."

"Wait, how do you even know how to do that?"

"Video games?"

"This is such a bad idea..." Jazz buried her face in her hands, rubbing at her forehead, "you do realize if we get caught we're getting detention forever, right? That's if we don't get suspended first!"

"Look, maybe you should stay here and... Stand watch?" Danny offered. "And if you see anybody coming, try to stall them."

She chewed on her lower lip, clearly conflicted, but from the way she crossed her arms, Danny could tell he had won her over. "OK, just... Be careful in there, little brother."

He smiled easily, holding the door for Sam and Tucker. "Hey, 'careful' is my middle name."

The dark halls of Casper High felt eerier than any empty building should. Every step echoed in the cavernous spaces, footsteps on linoleum the only thing to break the complete silence that had fallen on the building. The pale beams of moonlight cast through doors and classroom windows gave the only light between the little islands of red glow under the Exit signs.

Until now, they had only seen this place filled with life and for it to be so _dead_ was beyond creepy. The building itself seemed to fill the void left by the people; even with the cameras disabled, it felt as though every shadow was watching the trio, moving as a tight pack, none wanting to stray too far from their companions.

When they finally reached it, the library was no different. Just the opposite of its daytime hustle and bustle, now a careful listener could probably hear a pin drop, even on the carpeted floor. Instinctively, Danny whispered to his friends, as he carefully crossed through the door. "OK guys, I'm going to walk around the room, and the alarms are probably going to start going off. You guys will have to help me track them all down, and hopefully, we can find them all and figure out a way to turn them off. Sound good?"

"Got it. Find the tiny screeching objects and mute them for good." Sam said, slinging a baseball bat over her shoulder.

"Uh, why do you have a bat?" Tucker asked.

"Danny told us to grab stuff from the lab we thought would help. I grabbed the baseball bat with 'Fenton' on it. Why, what did you bring?"

"Well, I didn't bring any blunt objects! We want to _disable_ them, so nobody knows they're broken. If the school just replaces them we're back to square one."

"I wasn't going to make it _obvious_ ," Sam said, "So what's _your_ plan?"

"I came prepared!" Tucker slung off his backpack and quickly emptied the contents onto a returns table, pointing to each item in turn, "a 30 Watt soldering iron, jump wires for bypassing circuits, a portable oscilloscope, my pocket multimeter, and of course—"

"Way too much coffee for 10 pm." Sam finished.

Tucker grabbed the thermos protectively. "Hey, even genius like mine can't exist without caffeine!"

Danny sighed in exasperation. "Guys, can we maybe not argue here?"

"I quite agree." The librarian looked up from her reading, glaring at them. "This is a _library_ , and I will have _quiet._ "

Red eyes shone from her pale blue skin as her aura flared, setting off every ghost alarm in the room.

* * *

Author's Note:

 _I have some questions for you, dear reader, if you have a moment for feedback._

 _What do you think of this story so far? In terms of your interest in the plot, how you like the tone, etc. Is there something you would like to see more of, or that seems lacking in my writing (characterization, pacing, anything really)? For returning readers from Disconnected, how do you think the sequel is holding up?_

 _I ask partly to evaluate how well I am recovering from the spring/early summer slump I encountered, and partly just because I have never written anything episodic in nature._ Disconnected _and_ Spaceman _may have had a lot going on in them, but both were told as essentially one continuous series of events. This story has an overall arc, certainly, but the individual stories are a bit more isolated from the whole._

 _...I should bring this rather long note to a close. Thank you for reading, as always, and I will see you soon with the third act. Tentatively, I'm planning to release it Saturday. Maybe the third time is the charm, for deadlines._


	4. The Pilot: Act Three

ACT THREE

INT. CASPER HIGH LIBRARY — NIGHT

The librarian carefully picked the glasses off her nose and set them down, where they disappeared into thin air; she gave the two arguing teens a harsh look before the shock of recognition was visible on her features.

" _You three_ were with that loud girl earlier, weren't you?"

"...Danny's sister?" Tucker made the mistake of voicing the thought, complete with a thumb over his shoulder pointing out the way they came in.

" _She's here?!"_ Shock turned to fury on The Librarian's features. "Thank you, child. Now pardon me while I teach her a lesson _she won't soon forget._ "

The ghost shot over their heads, forcing them to duck; when they stood again, she was gone from the room.

"Damn it, Tucker!" Sam threw a punch at his shoulder. He didn't dodge _that_ in time.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"Don't you think you might have just gotten Jazz in some trouble?!"

"Oh. ...Oh dang."

"We've gotta warn her before that ghost gets to her!" Danny said, "She'll be totally unprepared out there!"

For the second time that day, Danny found himself running through the hallways. The ghost may know the library it haunted, but he knew the school's layout like the back of his hand. They just had to make it back to the front door before the librarian could check the whole grounds.

"Look out!"

Sam shouted it but didn't wait for him to react. She grabbed him and Tucker by the collars and yanked them to one side, sending the three of them tumbling to the floor as the ghost whipped by them. It seemed to be heading back to the library, carrying Jazz bound and gagged with ectoplasmic cloth. Apparently, the Librarian had found the correct door relatively quickly.

Danny clambered back to his feet and had run several paces before Tucker shouted after him.

"Wait, Danny! Are you seriously going back in there?"

The teen hastily came to a stop and turned to face his friends. "That ghost has my sister, Tuck."

"Yeah, I know, so we should call your parents. We don't have any weapons."

"We have my baseball bat," Sam offered.

"Aside from Sam's baseball bat, we don't have any weapons. And come to think of it, what good is a baseball bat going to do? It's a ghost, Sam."

"Hey, I just about took out Phantom with one a couple weeks back! And besides, Danny's parents made this one, so it's probably some kind of anti-ghost thing. Right, Danny?"

Danny shook his head. "Guys, I have no idea what's up with the bat. All I know is that a ghost has my sister, she's only in there because of me, and I'm going to get her back. I don't care if I have to... I don't even know what. But I'll think of something."

His speech did little to inspire confidence, but he took off running again before Sam or Tucker could stop him.

* * *

Danny carefully peered around the door frame leading into the darkened room. The library was as lifeless as ever, except for a faint light immediately behind the front desk. He heard a muffled voice and a jogging clattering sound he couldn't identify.

As quietly as he could, he made his way up to the desk. Peeking over the top, he identified the mystery sound as coming from a dusty film projector; the clicking of the motor and shutter was soon overtaken by bright, tinny musak, and a ridiculously peppy narrator.

 _"Have you ever watched the way others use the library? There's_ _ **quite**_ _a difference in the way they go about it. Some seem lost in the library—"_

Jazz was tied to a chair facing a screen, a black-and-white film on library etiquette playing out in front of her. As the scene changed to show "Nancy", a typical disruptive youth who talked too loudly, Jazz managed to roll her eyes and groan even in the face of her current predicament.

The Librarian, who had been hovering over her shoulder, floated to one side, arms crossed. "Complain all you want, missy, you caused quite enough of a ruckus today to deserve this."

Danny had to hastily stifle a laugh. It seemed as though his sister was only in danger of being bored to death. The thought of just leaving the ghost to it seriously crossed his mind. At least, until he heard what it said next.

"And if you keep up that attitude, I'll double your thousand year punishment to two thousand!"

OK, maybe Jazz was in some trouble.

Danny stood slowly and carefully grasped the handle of the bat Sam had left lying on the counter, but not carefully enough. As he lifted the bat over his shoulder, the ghost noticed the motion in its peripheral vision.

"You." The ghost growled, eyes narrowed at Danny. "I see you've come back for your trouble-making sister. Although I suppose that must run in the family."

"Yeah, you bet I came back for her. Like I'd leave her in the hands of some crazed-up dead lady."

The Librarian's dark red eyes flared a bright, flaming orange. "How dare you speak to me that way! Using 'like' as a conjunction, honestly!"

"That— What?"

"On your head be it! Neither you nor your sister will leave here alive!"

Danny felt anger bubble up within him. It started in his chest and rose to his head. His hands clenched around the bat until the wood creaked. "I'd like to see you try."

To his surprise, the Librarian actually seemed to back off for a moment, a look of confusion and shock etched onto her face. It didn't last long, as a split second later the ghost alarms finally started blaring.

"It's you! You're the ghost child intruding on my territory, setting off these alarms and bringing all this noise with you!" She was on him in a second, lifting him up by his throat. "I was going to try to teach you some manners, but I see now that the only solution is to rid myself of you altogether!" Those eyes flared again, as they bored into his own. The ghost's aura seemed to burst forth, the shrill alarms suddenly silenced as they exploded in a shower of sparks.

"Danny!"

The shout came from the doorway. Danny flailed in the ghost's grip until he could turn his head enough to look; Sam and Tucker had finally come back for him.

"Sam... Distract— hurrk!"

Sam looked around for a moment before a devious look dawned on her. "Hey!" she shouted, "Is this hardcover new?"

Sam held up a book, retrieved from the Latest Additions table; it did, indeed, seem to be in pristine condition, hardly touched by human hands.

"Well, yes, I suppose it is, child." The Librarian explained it slowly, as though not entirely sure why she was being asked.

"Oh, well do you mind if I just... Crack this open?" As she asked if, Sam opened the book until the spine started making cricks and pops. She overextended it to leave a good mark along the outside.

"No! Stop!" The Librarian shouted in a panic, her grip on Danny loosening.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'll put it back, just let me save my place..." Sam folded down the corner of the page, making a sharp dogear.

The ghost howled with rage, her attention now fully on Sam. As she flew off of Danny and across the room, Tucker caught on to the plan.

"Oh gee, I wonder which book I need..." he asked aloud.

The Librarian stopped mid-air, seeming to calm down in almost an instant. "Can I help you find something deary?"

"Oh, I'm looking for a book... It must be one of these!" Tucker began pulling books off the shelf at random, capturing the suddenly nervous ghost's attention. Both Sam and Danny used the opportunity to sneak back to the reference desk, where Sam busied herself loosening the knots holding Jazz in place.

"It's none of these books, I guess I'll just reshelve them. Even though I don't know where I took them from!" Tucker whistled as he went about ruining the careful arrangement of the shelf, sticking books back in place at random. "Wow, this isn't in order at all! Sorr— eep!"

When he turned, the Librarian was directly behind him, and he soon found himself in the air, held by the front of his shirt to meet her at eye level. "You will pay for that!" She spoke with a calm wrath.

"Hey, lady!"

The ghost whipped around to face the caller; Danny stood on top of the countertop, coffee in hand. "Do you allow food and drink in here, or are you... Booked?"

With a grin, he uncapped the thermos, preparing to pour the hot beverage all over the materials at the front desk. To his surprise, he got a painful shock down his arm that forced him to drop the container. As it fell, a vortex shot out of the cap straight at the ghost manhandling his friend.

When the coffee-scented smoke cleared and the ghostly wailing had died down, Tucker had fallen to the floor, and the librarian was nowhere to be seen. Still nursing his hand, Danny jumped down to the floor and carefully picked up the now inert thermos.

"Dude. What the hell was that?" Sam asked from over his shoulder.

"I don't know... I mean this thing was supposed to do that, but it's never worked before... Huh." He shrugged and replaced the cap. "I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I will..." Tucker said from near the shelves where Jazz was helping him to his feet, "how about next time you wait until I'm not being held 10 feet in the air?"

"And what was with that 'booked' comment?" Jazz added.

"It was— Look, I was under pressure, OK?"

"You've really got to work on your one-liners, man. They're really not getting better."

"Again, you're welcome, Tuck!" Danny threw up a hand in exasperation, "should I just leave you hanging next time?"

"Whoa, hold on little brother... What do you mean, 'next time'?"

"Come on Jazz, I'm just thinking ahead here. If there are going to be ghosts like that all over town... I've fought them before, and I guess I can fight them again."

"Why don't you just leave it to our parents?! You're only 14! You're a vulnerable, impressionable youth, not some kind of... Ghost vigilante!"

"Come on Jazz, I love our parents, but we can't leave it all to them."

"Danny's got a point Jazz," Sam chipped in. "Tucker and I phoned in an anonymous tip on their ghost hotline and they still aren't here. We ran to the front office and back, so that must've been what, 5 minutes ago?"

He nodded. "That's my point. We're going to need to defend ourselves, at least, and others if we can."

Jazz shook her head. "I can't be a part of this. It's crazy, it's reckless, it's... I can't talk you out of it, can I?" she asked with resignation.

"Noooope! Come on sis, it's kinda my fault these ghosts are loose in the town in the first place. That's my problem, not yours. Just... Don't tell mom and dad."

"...fine. Fine, but if you're in a life or death situation, I fully reserve the right to save your butt."

She looked at him intently. Danny knew from experience it was the best deal he was going to get. He still rolled his eyes at her weirdly overactive worrying. "It's not gonna happen Jazz, but alright."

She left the three standing there, muttering something about "typical little brothers" as she stalked off.

"...so that happened," Sam said simply.

Tucker shrugged. "Well, at least the alarms exploded. Looks like things'll be back to normal tomorrow, huh?"

"Come on Tuck," Danny groaned, "don't jinx it..."

* * *

The door swung open, and the chill of the nighttime autumn air rushed into the darkened living room.

Danny gave the key a jiggle as he pulled it from the lock, trying to make as little noise as possible; he was halfway through closing the door silently, congratulating himself on not waking his parents, when the light clicked on in the entryway.

"Danny."

The teen winced at the tone and turned around to see his mother looking unimpressed at his attempt to sneak in. She was wearing a housecoat and had tired eyes that matched the cup of coffee she was holding at seven past midnight.

"...hi, mom. Sorry I'm late?" He gave a nervous laugh and a smile.

To his great surprise, she sighed, but then chuckled lightly. "Welcome home. I know you've been feeling cooped up, but this is seriously past your curfew, young man."

Danny visibly deflated for a moment, before she continued, "But, since it was your first day out with friends... I think your father and I can let this slide."

He blinked once or twice before the words registered. "You mean... I'm not grounded forever?"

"No, you're not grounded, _but,_ " the addition cut short his celebratory fist-pumping, "I think in exchange I'm going to have to ask for your help with a special project this weekend..."

* * *

Author's Note:

 _Well, that was a bit rocky. I think I wrote the story beat sheet for this section something like five months ago now. I think things should be more stable for me from here on; I have been wrong before, although I have no plans to switch jobs again any time soon. And besides. I have always found autumn an excellent time for writing. The next installment of_ Analog _goes out tomorrow (or 'today' now, I suppose), the 10th of October, and with any luck, we will begin the next chapter of this story (currently unnamed) on Saturday the 14th._

 _All that said, I expect fully that I will soon be kidnapped and forced to watch far more baseball than a reasonable person could ever want to. If you do not hear from me before Chicago is out of the running, please send help._


	5. Time and Space

?

The balance assembly was removed with the utmost care and precision. A pair of tweezers lifted the part away from the casing and onto the table. A lamp was swung over it to provide a pair of inquisitive eyes with a more direct light on the small object.

The problem was obvious. A twisted hairspring, thousands of pounds of pressure brought to a halt from the tiny friction of metal rubbing against metal. It was simple enough to fix.

Under the probing light, the smooth ruby bearings embedded in the delicate wheels glittered the same red as the worker's eyes, as he loosened the collet from the balance staff. Soon, the delicate spring slid away from the wheel.

The watchmaker smiled as the bent section became obvious. With two pairs of tweezers, he firmly grasped the spring, and with the gentle pressure given by millennia of experience, carefully began bending the errant spring back into shape.

"...is now a bad time?" asked a voice from directly behind him.

Clockwork jumped in surprise; his arm jerked forward, snapping the small metal part in half.

"Sorry. I genuinely thought you couldn't be surprised," explained the voice, now in front of him.

"As _I_ thought you would have the good sense not to sneak up on me after the last incident," the ghost explained. He stared straight ahead to where the disembodied voice had appeared with a look of displeasure.

A dark shape curled out from empty space, inflating like a black origami cloud. Its nebulous form shimmered as its impossible geometry rearranged itself, whole sections passing through themselves, seeming to pop in and out of existence as they went. When it spoke, it was with a rising and falling voice that seemed to come from everywhere on its figure at once, despite a lack of recognizable head, face, or even mouth. "The last incident? You mean the one I don't remember, because it never happened?"

The time ghost scoffed, placing his tools back on the table next to the broken timepiece. "Oh, it did happen, Vector. In the same timeline where this watch was made, incidentally. It never did get invented in our current reality, so thank you for destroying the only one of its kind in existence."

The other, apparently called Vector, made a _hmm_ ing sort of noise. It sounded like a cross between a low purr and a radio tuned to dead air. It moved around the table, rippling like an accordion as it went. "Everything is one of a kind, isn't it? Have two things made from one design ever _really_ been the same, as far back as you can remember?"

Clockwork floated back a bit, arms crossed in front of his chest, and a frown still set on his face. "There was a purpose for you coming here, wasn't there?"

"Oh, right! I think I found Danny Fenton, and it's not a false alarm like last time. Were you still looking for him?"

"I am, yes." As a courtesy to Vector, he checked his still-functioning wristwatches, although he knew what time it was already; in actual fact, he _always_ knew what time it was, but in the past that certainty had made people uncomfortable. "I'll need to have a word with him. Could you please collect him for me?"

"Right away?"

Clockwork smirked. "In your own time."

* * *

Author's Note:

 _The idea for Vector is actually one I had quite some time ago while still writing_ Disconnected _. It came out of some combination of re-reading_ Flatland _and watching a video about regular solids in higher spatial dimensions while ill and waiting for NyQuil to kick in. And besides, I rather like the idea of a Ghost of Space to go with the Ghost of Time. Also, hello Clockwork, I thought I heard somebody say "deus ex machina". There is a bit of an AU at play that I will not bore you with since (as you may have guessed) we will be seeing these two again._


	6. The Last Swap

AMITY PARK AFTER DARK

"The Last Swap"

 _Ch. #02_

TEASER

EXT. AMITY PARK SWAP MEET –– MORNING

"Hey, Da- pff-! Ahahahahaha! Oh man!" Tucker nearly doubled over, grabbing Danny's uniformed shoulder for support. "You look freaking ridiculous!"

Sam, in Gothic fashion, seemed to be withholding a smile, but not as easily as usual. "So, how's it going Danny?"

Danny stood slouched in the middle of the Amity Park Swap Meet, in between the vendor stalls he had been patrolling since 6 am. It wasn't quite how he had wanted to spend his Saturday, but his parents needed help watching the area for ghostly activity, and of the two Fenton children, Jazz wasn't the one who was open to parental blackmail.

And so _he_ was the one out in public, wearing a baggy uniform that made him look like a low-rate rent-a-cop, with the addition of green cartoon ghosts on his shoulders and an equally ridiculous Fentonworks employee badge. "Just peachy, Sam, thanks for asking."

Tucker finally managed to compose himself. "It's just... Oh man, your freaking _hat_ , it's just _perfect_!"

With a frown, Danny rolled his shoulder, sending Tucker stumbling to the ground. "The worst part is that there've been no ghosts all day. The mayor was super worried about a big public event and it's gotta be the quietest it's been all month today."

"Well hey, look at it this way," Sam shrugged, "at least you don't have to actually do anything this way."

"I wouldn't even if there were ghosts, my parents just want me to alert them if any show. I'm not supposed to handle guns, remember?"

"Wait, you still haven't told them you got the thermos working?" Tucker asked, brushing himself off as he got to his feet.

Sam sighed. "Of course he hasn't, they would want to know why he even had it, and then they'd probably try to make him stop fighting ghosts. Patents don't understand what it's like to be a teenager and have a duty to help people."

"I... Uh, hadn't really thought about it that way, I just didn't want to have an awkward conversation."

"Hey, Danno! Did you mention awkward conversations?" Before he had a chance to prepare, Danny found himself clenched to his father's side in a combination side-hug and half-nelson. "I wanted to ask if you were OK with posing for a photo! The Amity Park Angle sent a photographer, and if it's a slow enough news day you might make the _front page!_ How about that?"

"I actually don't think—"

"Hey, there's the photographer now!" With a grin, Jack pointed out a bored-looking 20-something laden with camera equipment; she was accompanied by Maddie, and very clearly not all that interested in whatever the older woman was talking animatedly about. "Hey, honey! Over here!"

Maddie spotted them and waved with a smile, leading her entourage along by the shoulder. "Here's my two favorite boys! Come on, big smiles now!" She clutched Danny from the other side, leaving him utterly trapped.

He looked to his friends in desperation, though both of them had taken the opportunity to step a safe distance to one side. Tucker gave him a small wave from some 15 feet away. "Mom, dad, I—"

 _Click click click click!_ Danny was interrupted by the rapid-fire action of a camera's shutter and temporarily blinded by the accompanying flashes, both of which came quite without warning. Before he had a chance to object, or at a minimum ask for a redo, the photographer apparently decided she had everything she needed and walked off without a further comment.

Not that it stopped his parents from abandoning him just as quickly as they had popped up, following hot on her heels.

When it was safe, Sam and Tucker approached him again. "Gee, thanks, guys. I really appreciated the help there." Danny was finding it hard to look as angry as he felt, blushing with embarrassment. He knew it failed when Sam had to stifle a laugh.

"Hey, look at it this way dude," Tucker clapped him on the shoulder in his usual supportive gesture, and every muscle in Danny's body tensed up. "...ok, yeah, I know I've said it before, but _this time_ , it _definitely_ can't get any worse!"

"Great timing, Tucker." Sam nodded appreciatively, gesturing behind their backs. "Shallow airheads, 4 o'clock."

"Hey, is that _Fenturd_?!" Dash's voice cut through the noise around them

Danny buried his face in his hands. "Please, just re-kill me now."

"Oh my god, it like, totally is! What's up with the dorky uniform?"

"It's the dork uniform for dorks, Paulina! Of course Fenton is wearing it!"

Looking up in resignation, Danny turned to face Paulina and Dash, the latter with one arm around the former's shoulders, the other lazily holding a basketball against his side. Danny noticed this out of instinct because a Dash that had his hands full was a Dash that was unlikely to punch him. In his experience, the bully very rarely thought to just drop something to free up an arm.

"That was a really creative insult, you use both your brain cells on that one?" Sam asked.

Dash scoffed. "Yeah, Manson, this time I know that's an insult! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me four times... Well, I don't care what you think, anyway, especially when Paulina here was telling me all about how she's going to the fall social dance with me!" He looked unreasonably proud about that, gazing down on the girl possessively.

She returned the look in kind, complete with batted eyelashes. "Of course! The prettiest girl in the school _should_ go with the best player on the football team _and_ the star of this year's play!"

"And don't forget, the new captain of the basketball team!"

Paulina smiled toothily. "And that. How could I forget?" She ran a finger down his chest and the jock visibly melted a little. "Why don't I help you practice for the big game tomorrow? This place smells like mothballs, anyway."

"Sounds great, Paulina. Later, Fenturd." Dash smirked over his shoulder as he let the girl lead him away.

"Blech. I think I'm gonna hurl. Did you guys see how weird and clingy she was with him? That manipulative little witch..." Sam turned to face her friends. Unfortunately, they looked less interested in whether Paulina was a manipulative witch than they were busy wishing they were in Dash's place in that situation. " _Guys_."

"Wha-?" Danny came to his senses, blinking. "Oh, yeah. Totally."

"She's definitely got me under a spell," Tucker added.

"Man, I'm sick of Dash always looking like the coolest kid in the school when he's such a massive jerk." Danny fumed, finally taking off his uniform cap and throwing it onto a nearby unattended table, where it landed among the bric-à-brac and dusty old curios. "Sometimes, I just wish I could outdo him. Beat him at his own game, you know?"

"Well, you have my full sympathy there, even if your intentions are less than noble." Sam gave him a little half smile that went some ways toward making him feel better.

"Bah, there's nothing more noble than the love between a boy and a girl, Sam!" Tucker defended, with only a slight hint of sarcasm. "...except maybe that new Bacon Baron Burger at N.B.'s. That's a pretty noble pursuit. Have you seen that thing? ...And do you want to ditch this place and go there? Your parents probably won't be back today, anyway. The swap meet is almost over."

It was actually several hours until the end of the swap meet, but Danny couldn't say no to his best friend's puppy-dog eyes. "Tuck, dude, you had me at 'bacon'. Let's head out. You coming, Sam?"

She rolled her eyes. "I can't go leaving you two by yourselves, can I?"

With a laugh, the trio departed. Danny's discarded hat was quickly forgotten, and the bottle it knocked over went unnoticed.

* * *

Author's Note:

 _So. I made a deal with_ imekitty _._ _I had originally agreed to get this chapter up on 19 January, or I would have to publish a highly embarrassing first-chapter draft for a mer!Danny story, which I wrote while drugged up on flu medication last winter. I can confirm that if I had things my way, it would remain away from public eyes._

 _Those were the stakes. And although I am still awake from Friday, Saturday has officially dawned over Lake Michigan. So I leave it to the reviewers; who do you think won that wager, her or I?_


	7. The Last Swap: Act One

ACT ONE

INT. CASPER HIGH HALLWAY - MON. MORNING

Forward 8. Back 44. Forward 43. The lock gave way with a snap, and a bleary-eyed Danny Fenton opened his locker, retrieving his books for the first period. He had been up late the previous day; after the swap meet had concluded more or less successfully even in his absence, he had to serve the second part of his sentence, which was comprised largely of helping his dad with the final preparations for the elder Fenton's Ghost Zone expedition. The bags were packed. 14 days of rations (although it was meant to be a 2 day trip) had been secured away. An overhauled suite of communications and telemetry equipment had been checked and rechecked. Everything was ready for Tuesday, and Danny had had the distinct honor of carrying most of it.

For their part, his parents had been giddy with excitement, which he had just found thoroughly draining. So far as Danny was concerned, the 'Zone was nothing but trouble, and he'd sooner seal the doors forever before he had to make good on his promises; promises he was increasingly regretting as the contents of his locker swam ever so slightly as his tired brain cried out for rest.

The knock on the door snapped him out of his stupor. Peeking around the side of his locker door, he saw Tucker leaning against the wall, with an expectant look on his face. "Hey, Tuck, what's up?"

Tucker frowned and knocked again. With a sigh, Danny leaned behind the door again, before asking "Who's there?"

"It's Tucker!"

He shut the door, facing his friend, who now had a ridiculous smile on his face for 8:30 am. "Hi, Tuck. What's up?"

"Dude, you've got to check this out!" He waved around the newsprint he held in one hand, before shoving it toward Danny.

The other teen took a moment, looking over the paper with confusion. "Whoa, that's..."

"It's great, right?"

"I dunno, I can't believe they actually bother to _print_ a school paper. What is this, the 90s?"

"Fair, but not my point. Would you actually read the story?"

"Sure, and then two people will have..." Chuckling at his own joke, he unfolded the first page, and read the headline aloud:

 _Baxter Challenges Opponents_

 _Wesley Weston, Sports Editor_

 _After new team captain Dash Baxter lead the Casper High Ravens to an 89-74 victory in their October 10th game against the Stark High Sabres, the triumphant basketball star issued an open challenge to any secondary school student in the city who thought they could beat him at his own game._

 _"Because I rock so hard at basketball, I'm gonna go head to head with anybody stupid enough to challenge me to a shootout," Baxter was quoted as saying, "Seven shots on net from the three-point line, Casper High gym, any day of the week. Go ahead and try it, chumps. I could use a laugh!"_

 _When asked by this reporter why he picked those rules, Baxter, visibly angry, replied, "'cause I said so, Less-ton_ (sic)! _Now get out of my way. I've got a hot date_ (sic) _tonight!"_

Danny folded up the paper and looked back at Tucker. "You aren't serious."

"I'm totally serious! Come on dude, like a month ago you had ghost pow— _mmph!_ "

Danny had covered Tucker's mouth with both hands, before leaning in and hissing in his ear, " _Not so loud, will you?_ I don't want the whole school to know!"

Tucker pulled back, continuing at a lower volume. "Right, sorry. I'm just saying, you kinda did the whole ghost hunting thing. That's got to have improved your aim at least a little, right? I'm sure you could... Hit some hoops. Score some baskets. Whatever it is you do in basketball."

"I'm... Wow, it really means a lot to me that you think I could win a game of the sports-ball."

"Hey, I never said _I_ was good at it! I reserve my competitive energies for calculating optimal _Doomed_ character builds and honing my pin-point reflexes. But I'm also not the one who wanted to... What'd you say again? 'Beat Dash at his own game'? Well," Tucker grabbed the paper and shook it at Danny for emphasis, "here's your chance to do literally that! It's worth a shot anyway, right?"

* * *

At Tucker's insistence, Danny spent the lunch hour in the gym practicing.

And then he spent an hour or two after school in the gym, practicing.

And after supper, he snuck into the school, alone, for a further hour of practice.

Danny heard the thunk of the door's mechanism and looked with some alarm over at the corner of the half-lit gym, his latest shot going slightly wider than the rest of them had. He still couldn't hit the net with any regularity, and he wasn't sure if he was more worried about being found in the school after hours or being found failing.

But it was just Sam.

"You're still here, huh?"

Danny did an awkward half-jog to catch the basketball bouncing to a stop near the wall. "...yeah. Did Tucker tell you-?"

"I noticed you were still offline on MSN. I figured you must still be here."

"Oh? Yeah. I haven't really had a chance to check in today. What did you want to tell me?"

"I just wanted to let you know my cousin was going to be in town on the 24th," Sam replied without looking at him, making her way over to the bleachers. Danny stood watching her from near the wall, basketball still propped under one arm. "I thought you'd want to know. He offered to drive us to Pittsburgh for the _Stand and Deliver_ concert, I guess he's going there anyway, for some kind of film festival."

"Cool. Sounds good." Danny shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

Sam sighed and leaned back. "What's this actually about, Danny?"

"What do you mean? The basketball thing?"

"So it's just about beating Dash? One-upping 'the competition'?"

"I... I guess so, yeah. Isn't that enough?"

"It doesn't seem like you, that's all I'm saying. Are you sure this isn't maybe about _her_?"

Her voice dripped with venom. They both knew who she meant.

"So what if it is, a little bit? Maybe I'd like to see a girl show some interest in me. You know, to have some value in somebody's eyes."

"Danny, that's— You do have... Ugh! How do you manage to be so infuriatingly dense and _tragic_ at once?"

"What's that supposed to mean, huh?"

She met his narrowed gaze, frustration written on her brow. "I just don't understand what you want. And I don't think you do, either."

Danny leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes. He didn't really want to have this conversation. It was stupid. He had every right to try to better himself, to try to get to the top of the freshman food-chain. It was natural, every teenager wanted it. Just because Sam was... Being so _Sam_ about it.

He was exhausted. He just wanted to go home and sleep and worry about all this the next morning.

Sam's eyes bored into his, scrutinizing every motion, every blink. She was searching for something, even though she knew the answer. He supposed it was the confirmation she was looking for. Tucker just smiled and shook his head, looking down; it was obvious what he was thinking, but afraid to say for fear of being punched in the shoulder by Sam or Danny.

Danny just sighed and slumped down on the bleachers between his friends. He wanted to express this feeling of... Defeat. That was the word he was looking for. It seemed like every time he wanted to make a name for himself, he had lost before he even started. He would always be Dorky Ol' Danny Fenton, unable to compete with his betters. Seeming to sense this, Sam leaned into his side and grabbed his hand before he could object. ...Not that he necessarily would have. She took his hand in one of hers, tracing out the lines on his palm with a finger.

They sat there like that for a moment until Tucker, presumably, started turning off the lights, one by one.

When the room was plunged into complete darkness, true silence reigned, as the subtle buzz of the fluorescent ballasts died out. It was a bit worrisome, especially when the warmth at his side vanished.

Danny stood, alarmed, trying to feel his way around in the darkness, but finding nothing. After wandering around in the dark, a soft green glow began growing above, shortly followed by the rushing of wind past his ears. The teen spun around, looking for the source; he couldn't find anything. The howling of the breeze seemed directional though, so he tried his best to follow it back to its source.

The glow intensified, seeming to creep through the cracks in the ceiling of the narrow hallway, but it provided enough illumination to see where he was going. How he was going to get there was another matter entirely, however. It was hard to tell if he was ultimately going in circles or not because the whole place seemed to be made up entirely of bare wooden floors and featureless gray walls. The only way to be _sure_ was the doors. Every door was slightly different. Some were open just a crack, others were fully ajar to the unknown space beyond, and just about everything in between. The hallway itself frequently twisted around corners and came to strange dead-end T junctions, where sometimes he would turn left and end up right, or he'd turn right and end up wrong. He also had a sneaking suspicion that some of the time the path would go up or down when it thought he wouldn't notice.

But the worst was the diverging hallways, where he always had to carry on straight ahead because turning down the diverging path would have meant death.

Danny only wished the people down those diverging paths would stop crying so much. The sound grated on his nerves. He had died before, and he got over it. Why couldn't they?

Eventually, he came to a closed door. With a smile, he pulled it open and stepped through.

He fell into the sky above him, flying in easy sweeping motions, laughing as he pulled off the occasional somersault or flip just for the sheer exhilaration of being _back_. The puffy, blue clouds parted as he flew higher and higher, giving way to the inky black void of space. With one last flip to right himself, Danny looked out over Amity Park. The source of the green glow suffusing the town was now clear; a brilliant, green comet was streaking across the sky, looping back and forth, circling over the downtown core far away from his vantage point.

He would have flown over to get a better view, but something told him to stay far away from the people. Instinct, perhaps, as the glow only got brighter, the sound of wind in his ears only growing louder.

And in an instant, he lost sight of the meteor behind some of the towering, silhouetted skyscrapers.

The shockwave was felt as much as heard. It nearly knocked him clear out of the sky, gloved hands flailing for purchase they wouldn't find falling through the air. A moment later, the downtown scenery exploded into a light brighter than he had ever seen before, brighter than a thousand suns, scorching his eyes and singing his jumpsuit. He toppled in mute pain and horror, eventually landing on the ground in a heap.

The bodies were writhing in pain, screaming for death—

—screams of the damned, newly dead although they didn't seem to know it yet—

—no strength in their limbs, wriggling around helplessly, like maggots—

Danny gripped his head tighter, willing the ruins around him to silence themselves. The din of begging and screaming and wanting and death and—

Suddenly, it was quiet. Danny was in an attic, looking out over a ruined city street. He took a long drag on his cigarette; big mistake. The sniper across the way took a shot that nearly hit him square in the head.

He ducked down and swept the fresh splinters out of his hair, cursing his bad luck. Danny readied his rifle, but before he raised it to fire he had an idea. He picked up the cigarette, still smoldering on the floorboards, and threw it over the ledge.

His opponent hastily fired again, and in that instant, Danny popped over the ruined wall, aimed down the scope, and fired.

Fired right into the shocked face of Danny Fenton.

Danny tumbled down dead into the street as Danny looked on in horror, until _he_ was the one falling, falling, falling,

He never felt his body hit the bottom.

* * *

"Hmm. You again."

Danny opened his eyes. It was the first voice he'd heard for eons, familiar and cruel.

When it flitted from one side to the other, he just barely caught a glimpse of a hazy shape of a teenager in the corner of his eye.

"I didn't think you'd be back. I'd hoped you wouldn't be. But you always manage to disappoint."

Danny tried to turn away from the figure, but it stayed anchored, always just out of view, always just barely visible.

"And quite a nightmare you're having, too. Not half as bad as some others, but that's the story of your life, isn't it? Just a half. You can't even be _fully bad_."

Ran and ran and ran, but it followed him. Or perhaps it just moved with him, because Danny couldn't run away from what was a part of him.

But then it pounced on him. He found himself knocked to the ground, hands failing to gain any purchase in the shifting yellow sands beneath him. The figure was a cloud of smoke in the shape of a teenager, with two chunks of blackness where eyes might have been. It's hazy form shifted constantly, eventually revealing a white gash in the shape of a smile on its head.

"Let's fix you so you look the part."

It grabbed at the top of Danny's head and pulled, unzipping him from top to bottom. Danny tried to scream and scream but he couldn't make a sound. The half that fell away turned to dust as it separated away from him, blowing away with the winds in this desolate place.

"Perfect. Now you're ready for our company, aren't you?"

The sickly sweet words were the last thing he heard as he lay there, unable to die.

* * *

There was no way to know how long he lay there before another voice—more of a "sound" than a real voice—broke through the mist.

 **"**? **Y** t **o** o **u** n **w** u **i** o **s** y **h** o **t** d **o** , **b** r **e** e t **b** t **e** e **t** b **t** **e** e **r** b **,** o **d** t **o** h **y** s **o** i **u** w **n** u **o** o **t** Y **?"**

Better? Of course he wished he was better! The truth was, he was a failure. He couldn't defend the people he loved most. He couldn't beat Dash. He couldn't... He wouldn't ever get Paulina's attention like this. Danny didn't know which one he cared about more, but if they were both equally impossible, did it really matter?

Nobody would ever care about him.

 **"**? **A** g **n** n **d** i h **y** t **o** y **u** n a **w** **o** o **u** d **l** **d** d l **d** u **o** o w **a** **n** u **y** o **t** y **h** **i** d **n** n **g** A **?"**

 _Yes._ He would do or give or try _anything_ to be better.

He felt a distant entity smile, and then cold, cold fingers grasped his chin and tilted his head upward to face them. When he opened his eyes, he was in a bright, barren expanse under a pale, milky-white sky. As far as the eye could see, it was like a cracked lake bed, just him and the woman.

Or at least, she must have been a woman, at some point. As it stood, her gleaming black hair fell down around a green, grinning face, a single visible eye appraising him.

 **"Tomorrow, I will give you seven perfect shots. No more, no less. And tomorrow, my payment will come due. Do you agree to this?"**

Danny nodded enthusiastically.

Her smile grew, and grew, and grew until it was all he could see. And then it disappeared.

By the time he awoke to his blaring alarm clock, he had forgotten all about it.

* * *

Author's Note:

 _Well, that was a weird one._

 _I think some of you have probably guessed who the ghost is by now, though I have yet to see it in the comments._


End file.
